Across families
Eastern Orthodoxy and Twelver Shia Islam
Different families with 13 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.09 (0 would be identical).
Shares the Catholic creedal core but reads salvation as theosis — genuine participation in the divine energies — rather than as a legal remedy. Correspondingly more immanent, more ascetic, and less interested in defining what it has not had to define.
Shares Sunni tawhid and adds a line of divinely appointed Imams, a living scholarly authority one formally follows, and a devotional life built around lament and intercession. Authority sits markedly more centrally than in Sunni practice.
Where they agree
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.00.
C1 Survival of the self
Both sit at continues in some form — a gap of 0.00.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at one life, then judgment — a gap of 0.00.
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at essential and prescribed — a gap of 0.00.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at an intentional act — a gap of 0.00.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at a personal being one can address — a gap of 0.03.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at leaning a people, inherited — a gap of 0.05.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at leaning strictly one and strictly one respectively — a gap of 0.06.
E1 Exclusivity
Both sit at one true path — a gap of 0.06.
D3 The body
Both sit at leaning to be disciplined — a gap of 0.08.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at revealed and fixed and leaning revealed and fixed respectively — a gap of 0.08.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at clergy and tradition decide — a gap of 0.10.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at leaning literal and binding — a gap of 0.12.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Eastern Orthodoxy | Twelver Shia Islam | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | a divine reality certainly exists | 0.00 |
| A2 Personhood | a personal being one can address | a personal being one can address | 0.03 |
| A3 Plurality | leaning strictly one | strictly one | 0.06 |
| A4 Locus | between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it | leaning wholly beyond the world | 0.30 |
| B1 Source of truth | revealed and fixed | leaning revealed and fixed | 0.08 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | leaning literal and binding | leaning literal and binding | 0.12 |
| B3 Institutional authority | clergy and tradition decide | clergy and tradition decide | 0.10 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | continues in some form | 0.00 |
| C2 Shape of time | one life, then judgment | one life, then judgment | 0.00 |
| C3 The human condition | leaning fallen and in need of rescue | between fallen and in need of rescue and ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.27 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | leaning given as grace | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | 0.16 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | essential and prescribed | essential and prescribed | 0.00 |
| D3 The body | leaning to be disciplined | leaning to be disciplined | 0.08 |
| E1 Exclusivity | one true path | one true path | 0.06 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | an intentional act | an intentional act | 0.00 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning a people, inherited | leaning a people, inherited | 0.05 |
| E4 Standing of nature | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | 0.14 |
Positions for Eastern Orthodoxy rest principally on Confession of Dositheus (1672) and the Philokalia; for Twelver Shia Islam, on Nahj al-Balagha, al-Kafi, and Twelver usul al-din. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.